Everyone wants a smoothly operating field service business, but not everyone knows how to achieve it. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are essential metrics measuring overall success, which track the progress of specific business aspects.
For the field service industry, specific KPIs measure the daily workflow and reveal opportunities for business operations to improve. Without using KPIs, it’s much harder to identify aspects of your business to adjust as you grow.
Once we unpack the most important field service KPI examples, you’ll be able to:
- Apply any, or all, of these success-defining metrics to your business.
- Reveal operations improvement opportunities across the entire business.
- Redefine your growth path with the power of statistical performance analysis.
We’ll break down these field service Key Performance Indicators by department to show how to fundamentally improve all aspects of business operations.
Key Performance Indicators for Dispatchers
Time to Schedule
Delays in scheduling technicians and assigning jobs decrease how many jobs get booked in the day. Slower scheduling results in lower overall productivity and fewer completed jobs each day. Faster scheduling of incoming appointments creates a consistent stream of revenue for the company.
Time to First Contact
The time-to-first-contact KPI starts ticking once you’ve caught the interest of a prospective customer. If you wait too long to contact them, they may turn to a competitor who responded sooner.
This metric reveals if your team is reaching out to customers as quickly as possible. Use this KPI to highlight opportunities to increase sales and boost the overall customer experience.
Travel Time
Travel time is a critical metric, which directly impacts customer satisfaction. If travel time is high, then customers are left waiting for your field team to arrive. Reasons for this metric being high could mean that jobs are too far away, technicians may lack the skills to complete jobs quickly, or too many jobs are scheduled last-minute.
With this metric, you can identify potential solutions that can help:
- Invest in software that leverages GPS to map the best route
- Train more technicians to develop specific key skills
- Find new ways to assign last-minute jobs
See how FieldEdge can simplify dispatching by using our streamlined dispatch board. On a single screen, see all your work orders: assigned, unassigned and completed. Drag and drop jobs onto the schedules of available and nearby techs – even if the assignments are last minute.
Schedule your FREE personalized demo today!
Field Service Manager KPIs
Wrench Time
The wrench time KPI measures how much time is spent on tasks defined by a field technician’s actual job description versus time spent on travel and administrative tasks. Essentially, it shows the productivity of your field technicians, how well the dispatchers are scheduling jobs and reveals opportunities to increase efficiency.
Response Time
The response time metric measures the duration before responding to a job assignment and highlights any issues that may affect this response time. In other words, the quicker your team responds to calls, the more work they’ll be able to complete.
However, there can be outliers hiding within this metric. Some calls might take longer to resolve, but it can help identify where your team might need more training.
FieldEdge’s drag-and-drop dispatch board helps your team schedule optimally. Book your FREE personalized demo today!
Variance from Standard
Every job has a set standard duration for completion. If this Key Performance Indicator’s variance is high, it reveals potential operational issues that need to be resolved. The job duration estimate may need adjustment, the field technicians might need more training, better equipment may be necessary, or more information might be needed to finish the job faster.
Field Technician Key Performance Indicators
Customer Satisfaction
When customers are satisfied, they’re more likely to return with repeat business. Tracking customer satisfaction will help evaluate the effectiveness of the team’s daily customer interactions.
Among other methods – brief customer surveys help gauge customer satisfaction. Higher satisfaction rates yield higher retention rates, increased lead conversions and more profit. If customer satisfaction is low, then consider identifying solutions for metrics (e.g. response times and repeat visits).
Rework Percentage
The rework percentage KPI tracks how often a job is revisited. This may be due to a faulty repair or installation. This critical KPI reveals the percentage of improperly completed jobs or jobs issued with incorrect requirements. Rework percentage can be incredibly frustrating for customers and can result in distrust and loss of future business.
Since rework only reveals the end result, a job needing to be revisited, this isn’t a direct critique on your field team. Dispatch should have the ability to schedule the right tech for the right job, which can drastically reduce your rework percentage.
Jobs Completed in a Day/Week/Month
The number of work orders completed in a specific time frame is a very straightforward and essential KPI, and it plays into other critical metrics.
If field technicians average fewer completed jobs over time, it could mean that some jobs may be taking longer than usual. It’s also possible that dispatchers are sending the wrong technicians to the wrong jobs.
Repeat Visits
Like the rework percentage Key Performance Indicator, the repeat visits KPI tracks jobs that have been paused or left unfinished because the technician didn’t complete the job.
This can be due to the technician not having access to the job site or lacking the proper equipment for the job. If this metric is high, it likely means technicians aren’t successfully completing the job the first time.
The Right KPIs Help Tune Your Operations for Growth
Measuring Key Performance Indicators will help any field service company looking to grow. However, the grounds to create fundamental change in your business stems from which KPIs are tracked as well as what’s done with the information.
These field service KPI examples will help you achieve your goals of improving business operations for sustainable growth.
